The Athabasca sand dunes, found in the northwest corner of Saskatchewan near the Northwest Territories (gMap, Google Maps), is the most northerly active sand dune formation in the world.
Frank Herbert’s novel Dune originated when he was working on a magazine article on sand dunes in the Oregon Dunes near Florence, Oregon. He became too involved and ended up with far more raw material than needed. The article was never written, but instead led him to six years of research and writing; the novel was much longer than average commercial science fiction of the time. Dune was then rejected by nearly twenty book publishers before being accepted by an editor at Chilton Book Company (known mainly for its auto-repair manuals). It went on to win major science fiction awards, the Nebula in 1965 and the Hugo in 1966.
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Dune, the 1965 novel, was made into a movie and released in 1984. Many of the exterior shots were filmed in the Samalayuca Dune Fields in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico near El Paso, Texas, United States. The dune fields, Dunas De Samalayuca, are 40 miles south of El Paso — gMap, Google Maps.
Dunas De Samalayuca is more commonly called “Los Medanos” or simply, the dunes. They lie directly across the main route of the Chihuahua Trail, part of the 1,600-mile long Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the “Royal Road of the Interior Land", the historic trade route between Mexico City and San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico.
The white to tan sands of the dune fields are composed of almost pure quartz (SiO₂). The quartz sand is slippery, and people surf on the dunes — gImages, https://goo.gl/bnTmTN.
The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, located in south-central Colorado about 550 miles due north of Dunas De Samalayuca, was established in 1932. Native American tribes had known about this location for centuries, and the Dunes were likely landmarks for hunting and trading trails. The Ute name for the Dunes was Saa waap maa nache, meaning ‘sand that moves’, and the Apaches called the Dunes Sei-anyedi, which means ‘it goes up and down’.
This park is a great place to visit. If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend it!
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, was qualified as an Apache attack helicopter pilot in April 2011. He resigned from the British Army in June 2015 to focus on his duties with the Royal Family.
The United States military used the code name “Geronimo” for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, but its use outraged some Native Americans. It was subsequently reported to be named or renamed “Operation Neptunes Spear”.
Harlyn Geronimo, Geronimo’s great-grandson, said to the Senate Commission on Indian Affairs:
“The use of ‘Geronimo’ in the raid that killed Bin Laden] either was an outrageous insult [or] mistake. And it is clear from the military records released that the name Geronimo was used at times by military personnel involved for both the military operation and for Osama Bin Laden himself.”
Geronimo (1829-1909) was an Apache leader.
During WWII, U.S. Army paratroopers took to shouting “Geronimo” as they leapt out of planes. This practice allegedly began with some of the first paratroopers who were testing then-risky jumps out of a plane – a group of them had watched a film featuring Geronimo the night before a jump, and one of them shouted Geronimo’s name as he jumped, hoping to channel the fearlessness of the Apache warrior.
The practice became widespread among paratroopers (and well-known in popular culture), and the Army put the name on the combat insignia of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment.
Levi’s jeans company created their first pair of 501 Jeans in the 1890s.
Levi Strauss originally sewed the jeans that his company made. One of his customers was Jacob W. Davis, one of the inventors of riveted denim pants. He became Strauss’s business partner and the rest is history.
Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara CA has been the home stadium for the San Francisco 49ers since September 14, 2014. It replaced Candlestick Park in San Francisco, some 49 miles to the north (gMap). The address for Levi’s Stadium is 4900 Marie P DeBartolo Way, Santa Clara CA 95054, and it is located at the corner of Marie P DeBartolo Way and Bill Walsh Drive. Marie P DeBartolo was the matriarch of the 49ers ownership family who died in 1987.
Marie P DeBartolo Way replaced Centennial Boulevard, which used to be there. Centennial Boulevard is now a much shorter spur just north of the stadium (gMap).
The NFL had awarded Super Bowl XXXIII to Candlestick Park. Candlestick Park had planned to make major renovations in preparation for the game; when that did not happen, the NFL owners awarded Super Bowl XXXIII to the Miami area during their October 31, 1996 meeting in New Orleans. Super Bowl XXXIII was played on January 31, 1999 and was one of the last Super Bowls to be played in the month of January — the first 35 Super Bowls were played in January.
The first Duke of Sussex was Prince Augustus Frederick, the sixth son of King George III. The title was given to him in 1801. Although he was survived by a son and a daughter, both children were rendered illegitimate by English law because the Duke’s marriage had been annulled due to a lack of royal permission. Thus, the title became extinct upon the death of Prince Augustus.
In 2018, the title was recreated and granted to Prince Harry to mark the occasion of his wedding to Meghan Markle.
Thanksgiving became a federal holiday in 1863, during the American Civil War. At that time, Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901) reigned as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to 1901.
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a US national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens,” to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the date was changed to the fourth Thursday in November.
Canada’s Thanksgiving is on the second Monday in October, but that was officially fixed only in 1931 or 1957, depending how fixed you want it to be. Prior to that it had been observed on various point in October and November and, like the US thanksgiving, was for a long time observed on a Thursday.
One of the United Service Organization’s major logistical efforts each year is trying to ensure that every member of the U.S. armed forces in the field gets a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day.
The present-day Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps create individual Thanksgiving menus for their forces. But the recipes are standardized by the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, aka USSC. USSC food technologists have created over 1,500 standardized recipes, including ones for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. (Roast turkey can be found under L-161-00.) This means that our deployed troops will enjoy a dinner like they would at home, with I-013-00, aka pumpkin pie, included.
The phrase ‘cold turkey’ is commonly used to describe the physical symptoms of withdrawal from an addictive drug, such as heroin or nicotine. However, the origin of the phrase in this meaning is unclear. The first use of the phrase in print was in a 1920 newspaper cartoon, where the speaker says ‘Now tell me on the square…don’t string me, tell me cold turkey.’ It may be that the original cold turkey was a combination of cold (“straightforward, matter-of-fact”) and the earlier talk turkey, which dates back to the early 1800s and refers to speaking plainly.
The phrase ‘jive turkey’:
From dictionary.com, a jive turkey is someone who is unreliable, makes exaggerations or empty promises, or who is otherwise dishonest. The phrase is so associated with 1970s culture.
From WWWWW, a Jive Turkey was a derogatory slang word in African American Vernacular English (Ebonics), used to refer to someone who was unreliable, made empty promises, or who was full of bluster. Several funk groups in the late 1960s and 1970s used the term, particularly the Ohio Players in songs such as “Jive Turkey” on the album Skin Tight from 1974. The insult became widely known in the 1980s, particularly via television comedies (e.g., The Jeffersons). The term has been used by later television characters (e.g., Homer Simpson) in order to demonstrate that they are out of touch with modern youth trends, culture, and language. The term was also used in the film Semi-Pro starring Will Ferrell and in Weird Science starring Kelly LeBrock 1985. “Jive turkey” also garnered attention in the movie Trading Places. Jive turkey, however, was already falling into disuse when it was spoken by “hip” television characters in the 1970s, such as George Jefferson. Jive turkey is also a quick step dance in Germany in the 1930s.
Johnny Otis’s song, Willie and the Hand Jive, reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1958. The song has been covered numerous times, including by Eric Clapton (whose version hit #26), George Thorogood, The Grateful Dead, Kim Carnes, and Cliff Richard.
The song is based on the “Bo Diddley beat,” and Otis said that he was inspired, in part, by music that he had heard being sung by a chain gang. The song was frequently accused of being a double entendre reference to masturbation, which Otis consistently denied.
Barbara Billingsley was originally best known for her role as June Cleaver in the sitcom Leave it to Beaver. Her career was revived decades later by her role (“I speak jive”) in Airplane (1980). She told the story of her great-nephew who went to see the film without knowing that she was in it and was so surprised at her role that he couldn’t stop himself from shouting “No! Aunt Bsrbara!”